


till the sea gives up the dead

by WhirlyBird70



Series: sing songs of the sea [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: :DDD, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Funerals, Gen, Implied Character Death, Temporary Character Death, cause its fun stuff and yknow. me., dont speed write then post kids this is what happens to you, edit: im boo boo the fucking fool and now the typos are fixed. first line, now changed to be the first one shot in the start of the series, the first line had a typo. im screaming. why., the ocean, uhh ill wait til part two to tag all the stuff that goes down then
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25721899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhirlyBird70/pseuds/WhirlyBird70
Summary: Luffy drowned, once.(It really only took once.)-There are those that belong to the sea, and those that belong to the earth.Monkey D. Luffy listens to the call of the sea.
Relationships: Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks & Monkey D. Luffy, Makino & Monkey D. Luffy, Monkey D. Garp & Monkey D. Luffy
Series: sing songs of the sea [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1874569
Comments: 9
Kudos: 186
Collections: final beauty





	till the sea gives up the dead

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: _implied_ character death, funerals
> 
> EDIT 8/10/2020: This work is now the first part of a series instead of the first chapter, in order to maintain tone and also for impact. Sorry for the trouble!

Luffy drowned, once.

(It only really took once.)

It was a quiet sort of thing, the way the ocean washed into his lungs and dragged at his limbs. His legs, bound together by rope and so very, very small (he was seven, he thinks) curled in the oceans current, a caress, a chain, a love. He had reached up towards the light, his small hands looking for the last bit of sun before the ocean held him forever, and slowly, _slowly,_ the world went dark and cold and lovely (lonely).

Luffy drowned, once, and it wasn’t painful. Just a gentle sleep, a falling, a sharpness in his chest brought in and soothed by water.

Besides – it wasn’t the end.

Not really.

(Not even as his heart stopped and changed, not even as his skin grew into the ocean floor, not even as his eyes opened with startling brightness, not even as he became not human (born of dirt) but something different (born of water.)

Not even.)

The horizon – the sun, the beautiful sun – looked different from the water, didn’t it?

-

Makino hears the tales, whispered in the village.

 _Sea child,_ they say, _it's why we won’t have a funeral._

 _He’s where he belongs_ , they say, _where he was born. He’s gone back to the waters._

 _Don’t let your children stare too long at the sea_ , they say, _or he’ll gain a friend to play with in those waters._

She ignores them the best she can, and cooks up meals for a boy who isn’t there to eat them anymore. Mayor Woopslap does not comment, even as Makino asks him to watch after the bar once a day – just for a lunch break – and ignores the sad look in his eyes.

Makino knew a Sea Child once.

She still brings meals out to him, setting pieces of meat into the gentle current and waiting till they disappear from the surface of the waves.

The villagers may say it’s just fish, but Makino sees the flash of scales and hears laughter in the wind and knows it isn’t.

 _Shishishi!_ The sea breeze says, so Makino sends out another meal and doesn’t think of a little boy lost to the waves to early.

-

Shanks had a hat once, and now he doesn’t. It’s as simple as that, and people are finding as they comment on it, they quickly end up dead or unconscious or worse.

(He was benevolent, once, and still is, but it’s not the same.)

The people learn to shut up.

(Six are the exception but they always were, anyway.)

Shanks knew a kid once, and now he doesn’t. He pours juice out to the waves on cold nights, and tosses one bit of his meal overboard every time he eats.

No one comments.

They all know the actions of the grieving.

(There are shanties about those who belong to the sea, held in her embrace not like the dead but like the living. Shanks sings them under his breath sometimes, and it's too much like a mourner’s plea for Benn not to bring him inside and put a bottle of sake in his hands.

They all hurt, sometimes, but that’s the price of freedom.

Of the _sea.)_

-

Garp has only attended one pirate funeral in his entire life.

(Rouge the Seashaker was smiling as she burned.)

This will be his second.

It’s different from before – quieter. No rage of tyrants, no chants of victories and swells of pride. No child wailing for his mother in the dark of the night, shushed by his new grandfather’s trembling hands.

It’s different from the marine funerals as well. No ranks of white line the edges of a ship, and no cannon balls or swords point their way to the sky. There’s no flag of white – no one singing the hymn of the dead.

Instead, it is Garp, and Makino, and Woopslap along the shores of a long-forgotten beach, standing side by side with a soon to be emperor’s crew.

Three people have arrows in their hands, Benn steadying Makino’s in hers as she cries.

(She hasn’t stopped, since she knew.)

The sun is setting, casting a beautiful, red gleam around them.

 _Sailor’s delight,_ someone behind Garp says, staring up at the sky, and Garp thinks Luffy would have liked it this way.

A pirate funeral, for a pirate king that never was.

(His grandson would have never been a marine no matter how hard Garp wished. Luffy wanted _freedom_ – not another chain. Garp just wanted to make sure his grandson didn’t die an early death on the waves.

Now look at them.

_Ha!_

Some dream that turned out to be.)

(Rarely, Garp knows, do marines achieve their dream. He had hoped he and his grandson were the exception.)

The water is calm before them, the one mercy the sea offers the grieving. The little raft, adorned with nothing but a plain jolly roger, bobs gently with the waves. Peaceful, but ever moving.

(Just like Luffy-)

Shanks shifts beside him, and Garp knows it's time.

He watches, as Shanks takes off his hat – Roger’s hat – and holds it to his chest. There are tears in Shanks’ eyes, because no pirate should ever be ashamed of showing that he loved.

The straw crinkles in his grip before Shanks lifts his head.

“To Anchor,” He says, and the crew behind them, lined upon the shore echoes. “To the King.”

“To Luffy,” Garp adds, gruffly because that is who this is for – not some king, not some anchor, but his _grandson._ “Monkey D. Luffy.”

Shanks nods, and kneels in the sand, hat still held in his hands.

“To Luffy,” Shanks murmurs one last time. “A promise.”

Someone strikes up Bink’s Sake, slow and sad, in the background, as the captain lays his hat in the water, pushing it out to sea.

They watch as the hat drifts to the raft and pause there, as if knowing this is where it’s meant to be.

(It’s not – it’s mean to be on a little boy’s head, far to big but enough to make him smile -)

Shanks nods, and to the tune of a pirate song, shoots a burning arrow into the sky.

The raft catches fire.

(The hat doesn’t burn.)

Makino shakes as she goes next, refusing Benn’s help, and lets her own arrow fly, flashing against the sun. The raft burns brighter against the red sky.

(The hat doesn’t burn.)

Garp is last, and tears blur his vision as he aims for the raft, the echoes of a marine hymn singing violently in his mind.

_The sea watches us…. Quietly._

_guiding us through our death… and our birth._

_From humble…. hometown waters,_

_to the waves at the end…. of the earth._

The arrow flies true. The raft blazes bright and unyielding, turning to ash and sinking into foamy waters.

(The hat does not burn.)

“Farewell, Anchor.” Shanks says, somberly.

“Farewell, Luffy.” Garp says, and falls to his knees.

(The hat _drowns._ )

Weeping for his grandchild, lost to the sea.

_All our pain and… suffering,_

_it swallows up… in its warm embrace,_

_so knowingly and… gently,_

_washes them all… away_

**Author's Note:**

> So. Lets see if this really is 13 chapters. Anyway, i also want all of you to take note of the **lack** of certain warnings at the top, and remember that this is a multichap fic!
> 
> This fic is inspire by some of the lines about Sea Children in mother mother ocean (my big bang fic) so i was like. what if he did answer the call? So this fic was born! Kudos to whoever guesses what this means for luffy ! being claimed by the sea ... hmmm.... :D
> 
> The second chapter is half written, should be almost entirely written by tomorrow unless i want to continue writing zoro being dumb some more lol. There is a tone shift, so it gets a lot happier i guess?? In the next chapter?? as op should be. 
> 
> The lyrics here are from Ocean guide from film z. Its an old marine song for fallen marines. I never watched the movie but i found the song today so now i cry!!
> 
> As always, please tell me if you spot any typos or issues with formatting (italicized words often merged with the ones after them)!! id be happy to correct it. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed this fic!
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)
> 
> Edit 8/5/2020: typos fixed!
> 
> Edit 8/10/2020: decided to make this the first part of a series instead of a multific! same concept tho, just for impact because another chapter after fucking killing luffy really kinda dampens it, yknow?


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